I'm sick. And yet, I drag myself from my bed to write about metal. This is what I do. And I do it because, even when I feel like every part of my body is about to fall off, I remember what it feels like on the flip-side, when I'm hale and caught in the wings of a truly great release. It's what makes it all worth it. And so, here I am to tell you about Caelestra's Bastion. I'll forgive you if that name doesn't ring a bell, although, hopefully, this post shall remedy this. I first covered the project on January 21's Kvlt Kolvmn and raved about the epic scale and ambition of Caelestra's progressive black metal. But I had no idea what I was talking about; Black Widow Nebula, the aforementioned epic release, was merely the opening salvo to Caelestra's penchant for massive, sweeping, and melodically tinged black metal. Bastion is everything that album was and so much more and I invite you to check it out in full below!
Usually at this point, I'd tell you to jump to a specific track or moment on the album I would like to discuss. But I actually want you to listen from beginning and hear the beautiful way in which "Halcyon", the opening track, builds and evolves until it blows into "Soteria". That track itself calls to mind the Devin Townsend comparison which the project itself uses to describe it music and which lends it another comparison: Christian Cosentino (and you know I don't give out that comparison lightly). But there, things are more "open", less dense that Cosentino's take on the question "what if Devy's grandiose prog was black metal instead?"
There's a lot more to love about the album and I could spend a good few thousand words walking you through all the different moments on it I adore (like the absolutely gorgeous opening to "Lightbringer", among others). But I want to leave you to your own devices and let you dive into this majestic release before it drops tomorrow, December 13th. Enjoy! And remember: life is worth living, if only for metal.
P.S I AM EDITING THIS POST TO SAY I FORGOT HOW ABSOLUTELY STUNNING THE SYNTHS IN THE MIDDLE OF LIGHTBRINGER ARE